DNS Security (DNSSEC) Experiments
RFC 4955
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RFC - Proposed Standard
(July 2007; No errata)
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2015-10-14
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RFC 4955 (Proposed Standard)
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Mark Townsley
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Network Working Group D. Blacka
Request for Comments: 4955 VeriSign, Inc.
Category: Standards Track July 2007
DNS Security (DNSSEC) Experiments
Status of This Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007).
Abstract
This document describes a methodology for deploying alternate, non-
backwards-compatible, DNS Security (DNSSEC) methodologies in an
experimental fashion without disrupting the deployment of standard
DNSSEC.
Table of Contents
1. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Definitions and Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4. Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5. Defining an Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6. Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7. Use in Non-Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Blacka Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 4955 DNS Security (DNSSEC) Experiments July 2007
1. Overview
Historically, experimentation with DNSSEC alternatives has been a
problematic endeavor. There has typically been a desire to both
introduce non-backwards-compatible changes to DNSSEC and to try these
changes on real zones in the public DNS. This creates a problem when
the change to DNSSEC would make all or part of the zone using those
changes appear bogus (bad) or otherwise broken to existing security-
aware resolvers.
This document describes a standard methodology for setting up DNSSEC
experiments. This methodology addresses the issue of coexistence
with standard DNSSEC and DNS by using unknown algorithm identifiers
to hide the experimental DNSSEC protocol modifications from standard
security-aware resolvers.
2. Definitions and Terminology
Throughout this document, familiarity with the DNS system (RFC 1035
[5]) and the DNS security extensions (RFC 4033 [2], RFC 4034 [3], and
RFC 4035 [4]) is assumed.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [1].
3. Experiments
When discussing DNSSEC experiments, it is necessary to classify these
experiments into two broad categories:
Backwards-Compatible: describes experimental changes that, while not
strictly adhering to the DNSSEC standard, are nonetheless
interoperable with clients and servers that do implement the
DNSSEC standard.
Non-Backwards-Compatible: describes experiments that would cause a
standard security-aware resolver to (incorrectly) determine that
all or part of a zone is bogus, or to otherwise not interoperate
with standard DNSSEC clients and servers.
Not included in these terms are experiments with the core DNS
protocol itself.
The methodology described in this document is not necessary for
backwards-compatible experiments, although it certainly may be used
if desired.
Blacka Standards Track [Page 2]
RFC 4955 DNS Security (DNSSEC) Experiments July 2007
4. Method
The core of the methodology is the use of strictly unknown algorithm
identifiers when signing the experimental zone, and more importantly,
having only unknown algorithm identifiers in the DS records for the
delegation to the zone at the parent.
This technique works because of the way DNSSEC-compliant validators
are expected to work in the presence of a DS set with only unknown
algorithm identifiers. From RFC 4035 [4], Section 5.2:
If the validator does not support any of the algorithms listed in
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